McNally, the former chairman of the Dauphin County Republican Committee, is the choice of local party titans and at least some Senate Republican leaders, who are helping the candidate carpet-bomb Dauphin and York counties with mailers this spring.

Both men frequently tell voters they would serve in the mold of arch-conservative Sen. Mike Folmer, R-Lebanon, who shocked the state in 2006 when, buoyed by anger over the legislative pay raise, he defeated sitting Senate Majority Leader David “Chip” Brightbill in the primary.

First, a self-styled “green” conservative, has aggressively criticized McNally as a “wishy-washy, Republican-In-Name-Only, country club Republican who doesn’t really stand for anything.”

“I want the citizens to get equal representation with the special interests,” First said, “and I want the Republican Party to return to its traditional conservative roots. We’re not going to get that with John McNally.”

Seeds, more recently, has piled on, too.

In a recent commentary, he called McNally the handpicked choice of the same Harrisburg political order that helped deliver the city to its debt crisis.

McNally, a lawyer with the Harrisburg law firm of Thomas, Thomas & Hafer — which has never been directly involved in incinerator work — bristles at his foes’ characterizations and makes no apologies for support he’s attracted from Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Jake Corman, R-Centre County, Rapp and many county officials.

“If you mean the establishment being our community, yes, I am the establishment candidate,” McNally said. “I have established myself in the community by being a good citizen ... and through that I have had the opportunity to make friendships with good elected officials and with other community leaders.

“This is the establishment that has recognized the work that I am capable of. They may define it differently,” McNally said of his opponents, “but they don’t define who I am.”

Who McNally is, is a longtime Republican Party activist from Lower Paxton Township who led his own revolution within the Dauphin GOP in 2006, when he and his allies — including Dauphin County’s GOP commissioners — wrested control of the county leadership from county Treasurer Bob Dick and former county Commissioner Lowman Henry.

In the five years since, McNally, 49, has consolidated his grip on the party machinery, forging alliances and winning backers along the way. Party activists say he has earned their loyalty and support for this run.

First, 47, is paying homage to the establishment of a different generation. His grandfather Edward First was a longtime Republican, attorney and civic leader in the Harrisburg area, involved in the development of regional landmarks including Harrisburg International Airport and Penn National Race Course.

Though a Centre County native, Josh First has lived in Harrisburg for most of his adult life, using it as the base for his conservation-based real estate businesses. He is an unusual mix of city-dwelling, outdoor-loving sportsman with a guiding pro-environment sensibility, but rock-ribbed conservative on most other fronts.

First, a proud gun owner who made the news for opening fire in the city on a pit bull that was threatening one of his children in 2008, hates most gun-control proposals, wants to make abortions harder to obtain in Pennsylvania and is big on restoring a culture of responsibility.

He sought the Republican nomination for the 17th Congressional District seat in 2010, finishing third overall but carrying Dauphin County with 46.7 percent of the vote in a four-way field — giving rise to the notion that the 15th District seat might be a good fit for him.

Seeds, 69, has spent much of his adult life working quietly in state and public service, including nearly 20 years as a township supervisor in Lower Paxton Township. He is retired from the state after years spent as a maintenance supervisor for the Department of General Services.

As the only candidate with local government experience, Seeds says he is best-qualified to represent the people of the 15th at the Capitol. As a retiree, he sees himself in the best position to give constituents his full-time attention. “I answer every phone call, I work for the people and I care about the people,” he said.

Background, connections and personalities matter in this race in part because the candidates are not so different on the issues.

For example, all support Gov. Tom Corbett’s major budget decisions to ate, including cuts in education and other areas. They support trying at least a pilot school-choice program as part of larger education reform packages. And they would work for the elimination of property taxes as the major source of funds for public schools.

They all want to at least raise the cost threshold for triggering the state’s prevailing-wage law, and none speaks in favor of any type of new gun-control laws.

But there are some subtle distinctions: While all the candidates identify as anti-abortion, only First and McNally voice support for a controversial bill mandating that women considering an abortion have an ultrasound first.

First and McNally specify they would support that bill only if it did not require a vaginal ultrasound, which they regard as cutting too close to government-forced health care.

But First, who uses the strongest terms on the abortion issue, argues that making a woman acknowledge she is carrying a healthy baby is a good way to underline the seriousness of an abortion so women “see what it is they’re doing and aren’t able to pretend that they’re not terminating a life.”

Seeds supports Pennsylvania’s restrictions on abortion but said he would not support the ultrasound bill. “Government should only do for the people what the people can’t do for themselves,” he said.

McNally and First are also strongly in support of privatization of the state-owned liquor stores and might be willing to support other privatization efforts. Seeds said he wants to take more study of that issue, including whether the state stores could simply be run more effectively by the state.

First, who worked in Gov. Tom Ridge’s Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and was nominated by Gov. Ed Rendell to an open seat on the Pennsylvania Game Commission in 2007, differs from the pack in his identity as a “green Republican.”

He says he would carry to the Legislature a strong interest in promoting farmland and open-space preservation, efforts that he says need to be supported as a matter of long-term quality of life and food and ecological security.

As to regional issues, McNally has endorsed the heart of the state receiver’s plan for the Harrisburg: selling or leasing assets such as the public parking garages and the incinerator plant, renegotiating city workers’ contracts and enticing new investment with tax abatements.

First is OK with leasing the city’s assets, but he also vows to place a new emphasis on winning a regular payment in lieu of taxes from the state to the city for the Capitol Complex that is exempt from local property taxes. Tax-exempt properties “are the giant hole in the doughnut, as I see it, of the city’s budget,” and he believes the state should be contributing millions more annually than it does.

Seeds has said his long background in municipal government can be helpful in right-sizing Harrisburg’s government and in fostering cooperation among city, county and state officials. He has also backed First’s call for more state reimbursements for the tax-exempt properties it controls in the city.

Piccola chose in winter not to seek re-election to a fifth four-year term in the Senate.

The winner of the Republican primary will face what is likely to be a pitched general election battle this fall against Democrats Rob Teplitz, chief counsel for the state auditor general, and Lower Paxton Township clergyman/consultant Alvin Q. Taylor.

The 15th state Senate District consists of Harrisburg and the townships of Derry, East Hanover, Halifax, Londonderry, Lower Paxton, Lower Swatara, Middle Paxton, Reed, South Hanover, Susquehanna, Swatara and West Hanover and the boroughs of Dauphin, Halifax, Highspire, Hummelstown, Middletown, Paxtang, Penbrook, Royalton and Steelton in Dauphin County and part of York County consisting of the townships of Conewago and Newberry and the boroughs of Goldsboro, Lewisberry and York Haven.

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